Plastic Surgeon Killed Texting While Driving

Texting while driving caused Hollywood plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan's fatal accident on the Pacific Coast Highway, his ex-girlfriend told People magazine.

"He lived up in Malibu on a tiny street and he was texting while driving, and he accidentally went over the cliff," Charmaine Blake said.

She said Ryan's family was told by investigators that his texting contributed to his death.

California Highway Patrol confirmed to People that Ryan, 50, was texting before the crash, but would not say it caused the accident.

"It is one of the elements that we are investigating," CHP Officer Steven Reid said.

Minutes before his crash, Ryan had Tweeted: "After 25 years of driving by, I finally hiked to the top of the giant sand dune on the pch west of Malibu. Much harder than it looks! Whew! ... Border collie jill surveying the view from atop the sand dune."

He also Tweeted a photo of his dog on the dune.

Emergency responders attempted to remove him from vehicle, but were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His dog Jill was thrown from the vehicle and found in the ocean. She suffered serious injuries to her head, paw and eye and was later released to a member of Dr. Ryan's ranch staff, TMZ reported..

Ryan was a staple in Hollywood, working on countless celebrities including Janice Dickinson, Adrianne Curry, Shauna Sand and Gene Simmons.

But it was his work with MTV reality star Montag that earned him notoriety; he completely (and publicly) transformed the troubled celebrity's looks. Performing 10 procedures in one day, Ryan gave Montag a mini brow lift, Botox, a nose job, a "back scoop," liposuction and an ear pinning, among other alterations.

Thrown Bar Mug Leaves Innocent Bystander Dead

A 23 year old New York man, an innocent bystander, was killed after a bizarre barroom incident across the street from Boston's Fenway Park.

Friends and family say the man just went to the Landsdowne Pub on Friday to see some college friends.

The six-month Wall Street employee hadn't had much time off during the summer, so his boss let him take off Friday to join friends from his college days in Connecticut in Boston.

They gathered at the Landsdowne Pub, but just after midnight shards of glass from a thrown mug hit him and two friends, police said, severing his jugular vein. Police said the man didn't even know the suspect who had been arrested for throwing the glass.

"He didn't know this guy. He didn’t say a word to this guy. There was no indication that he was involved in anything," the victim's father said.

From behind a closed courtroom door, Hector Guardiola, 25, of South Boston, was charged with manslaughter and released on $75,000 bail.

"Mr. Guardiola and two other bar patrons, apparently strangers, had a confrontation over apparently something trivial which escalated to a thrown mug," a prosecutor said.

The victim's two friends, including his former college roommate are recovering from their injuries.

From thebostonchannel.com

Car Collapses on Queens Man During Repairs

A Toyota Celica slipped off a shaky jack and killed a 42 year-old Queens man while he worked on the car in his garage.

From NY Daily News

Finalist dies at World Sauna event in Finland

A test of endurance proved fatal for one Russian man.

The finalist at the World Sauna Championships died on Sunday in Finland after suffering burns from exposure to the steam's extreme heat.

Vladimir Ladyzhensky (left in photo) was facing off against Timo Kaukonen when both men collapsed about six minutes into the final round of the annual competition.

The pair suffered severe burns, but Ladyzhensky later died. The exact cause is unknown pending an investigation.

The contest held in Heinola has been suspended, as investigators look into how the endurance competition was handled.

Organizers insist they did everything by the book.

"All the rules were followed and there were enough first aid personnel," Ossi Arvela, who heads the sauna contest, told reporters. "All the competitors needed to sign in to the competition with a doctor's certificate."

Participants must endure 230 degrees Fahrenheit in a sauna, and the last person remaining wins. Half a liter of water is added to the hot stove every 30 seconds to maintain the heat.

"I know this is very hard to understand to people outside Finland who are not familiar with the sauna habit," he said. "It is not so unusual to have 110 degrees in a sauna. A lot of competitors before have sat in higher temperatures than that."

More than 130 competitors from 15 countries took part in the event, which started in 1999. Because of the fatality, the competition will likely never be held again, organizers said.

from BBC News

Georgia CEO Fatally Shot By New Jersey Cop

Police are investigating the death of Credit Union of Atlanta CEO Defarra 'Dean' Gaymon, who was fatally shot by an undercover New Jersey cop on Friday night. According to a press release from the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, the undercover detective had been investigating complaints of "public sexual activity" in Branch Brook Park in Newark, and had made one arrest with his partner. During the arrest, the detective lost a pair of handcuffs, and retreated into the park to search for them. That's when he claims he was approached by Gaymon, who was "engaged in a sex act" at the time (the WSJsays he was masturbating).

After the detective flashed his badge, he says Gaymon "assaulted" him and fled, allegedly shouting threats at the officer. The press release says, "Mr. Gaymon then lunged at and attempted to disarm the officer while reaching into his own pocket. Fearing for his life, the officer discharged his service weapon, striking Mr. Gaymon once." Gaymon, however, was unarmed.

The 48-year-old, a father of four in town for his high school reunion, died of a shot to the stomach at University Hospital. The officer was also brought to the hospital to be treated for trauma, and wasn't able to give an account of what happened until Monday. Because he is the only witness, Gaymon's family has questioned the validity of his story. The family said in a statement, "We know that the police killed an innocent man, with no history of or disposition towards violence." Police have asked any other witnesses to step forward.

The Credit Union of Atlanta wrote on their website, "Credit Union of Atlanta extends condolences to the family of DeFarra "Dean" Gaymon who passed away suddenly July 16, 2010. We are deeply saddened at the loss of Mr. Gaymon and offer our most sincere sympathy to the Gaymon family." Another reunion organizer told the Times, “All the people that knew him say you never met a kinder, nicer, more gentle person, and they’re stunned about what happened."

The Wall Street Journal via Gothamist.com

Two Elderly Men Die in Skydiving Accident

Two men in their 70s who bonded over a passion for skydiving died together over the weekend after their parachutes became entangled about 100 feet about the ground in Pennsylvania. Theodore Wilson, 70, was a well-regarded retired accountant who grew up in the Bronx and volunteered to help abused children at theBronx Community Health Network. NJ resident George Flynn, 75, was a retired ironworker and a grandfather of seven. Both men were extremely experienced skydivers; Wilson had logged 545 skydiving jumps in his lifetime, while Flynn had logged 1,497 jumps. But despite their aptitude, the two friends made their last jump Saturday, their third that day.

Witnesses said Wilson and Flynn appeared to be having perfectly normal jumps, but as they floated to the ground, they inexplicably slammed into each other in midair and the lines of their parachutes got tangled up, sending them both crashing down. Wilson was declared dead soon after, but Flynn held on and briefly regained consciousness before dying on Sunday.

Wilson's son Theodore called his dad the "Lion of the Family" and tells the Daily News, "I never really wanted my father to do skydiving - not at all. But he said to me, 'You have to live in the moment and you could die from anything, so why be fearful?'" And Flynn's wife Delores says, "He would have been happier to go like that than getting sick and lie in a hospital bed." According to another article in the News, only 16 people died in 2.5 million parachute jumps in the U.S. last year.

Son of NYC Mobster Mickey Spillane Falls to Death

The son of murdered Irish mobster Mickey Spillane tumbled out the window of his sixth-floor apartment in a fatal fall Saturday, police and his uncle said.

Robert "Bobby" Spillane, an actor who had roles on television's "Rescue Me" and "Law & Order," fell from his Midtown Manhattan apartment in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood near Times Square where his father, not to be confused with the pulp fiction writer of the same name, had run rackets back in the 1960s and 1970s.

Spillane, with one arm in a sling, had leaned on the screen of an open window to call out to his brother, Michael, who was on a street below, McManus said. The screen collapsed and Bobby Spillane fell, McManus said the brother told him.

"The screen gave out," McManus said. "He only had one arm and he went out with the screen."

The New York Police Department could confirm that Spillane fell through a window after a screen collapsed. Officers and medics responded to a call on Eighth Avenue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood about 7:45 a.m. Spillane was pronounced dead at the scene.

Spillane's father, who was revered as the "gentleman gangster," was gunned down in 1977 by the rival "Westies," the Hell's Kitchen Irish mob.

In an article about his funeral published in The New York Times, Spillane was described by a detective as "a very strong enforcer, a handsome, black-haired tough guy out of the movies."

He was often asked, even by law enforcement, if he had any relation to the crime writer of the same name.

Bobby Spillane never moved far from his family's roots in the old neighborhood near the Broadway theater district.

A few years back, Spillane drew on the lore from his father's time to write an Off-Broadway play called "All Dolled Up" about a cross-dressing gangster in the 1960s.

From 1010 WINS